Saturday, January 1, 2011

I'm on the ballot and running for village trustee. I want to win but I don't want to have to campaign. Can you help?

Political Ptak

Dear Faux Joe,

There are two ways to get elected to public office in Illinois. The first way is to work hard, knock on doors and talk to voters, attend public events and meet civic and political leaders, master the issues that are of vital concern to both the voters and governing bodies, and be a tireless advocate for the policies that will best address these issues while serving the voters in a fair and equitable way.

The second way is to file a petition challenge and get your opponent thrown off the ballot.

You strike your LakeCountyEye as a #2 type of candidate. And you've come to the right place for advice!

There are more loopholes for challenging a nominating petition in Illinois than there will be potholes on the Route 53 extension. You may have already read about some recent clever petition challenges on this blog ...

Your opponent can be knocked off the ballot on the basis of a petition staple, or for owing money to the board they wish to represent, or to anything in between.

But the go-to guy for a petition challenge is LakeCountyEye operative manque, Joe Ptak. Ptak, some may recall, attained national notoriety for being the guy who demanded a Pledge of Allegiance at the Bean/Walsh debate in Grayslake last October:

Ptak is now cashing in his political capital, no doubt with hopes of parlaying it into a political career. Now running for Island Lake trustee, Ptak has personally filed a petition challenge against his opponent, Marcy Night. As Ptak personally told the Daily Herald,

"We want to capture all three seats and take control of the board, which is presently dominated Mayor (Debbie) Herrmann and her three allies," Ptak said. "I was raised in Chicago and we don't want our vote split."Lake candidates face petitions challenges

So when it comes to getting elected to local office, one could do worse than to emulate joltin' Joe Ptak: With liberty and justice for all!

If you are an elected official, or a previously elected official, or just a private citizen under indictment, send your political questions to Q the Eye c/o ... LakeCountyEye@gMail.com

12 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Marcy Night filed a Petition with only six signatures? And she needed a minimum of 33? If she wants to run for trustee, she should follow the requirements prescribed by law to get on the ballot. After all, if elected, she would have become a lawmaker.

Seems like the ridicule here (as usual) is being hurled in the wrong direction. If Night wants to run, she could have at least obtained the minimum required number of signatures.

Or is the ridicule being heaped on Ptak because he forced the League of Women's Voters to recite the Pledge of Allegiance during a political debate when they didn't want to. I mean like the Pledge is so out of date, uncool! :-)

Perhaps Ptak was acting like our President of the United States, who when he ran for State Senate, knocked off seven (7) opponents from the ballot and then, finding himself all alone on the ballot, and didn't have to campaign. Two years later he was sitting in a little room in Springfield choosing his boundaries for his State Senate District in that Democratic system of choosing your constituents instead of the constituents choosing you!

Funny, I never saw any Democrats get too worked up over that "undemocratic" series of stunts pulled off by the POTUS!

hi Louis,I believe Night submitted the required aggregate total number of signatures. Island Lake however is located in both Lake & McHenry counties, and the village has individual county requirements. The dispute is over whether Night met the minimum required number of Lake County voters.Also I am aware of the story behind Obama's meteoric ride to the White House. Let's keep an eye on Joe Ptak, another savvy local pol!-BB-

Mr. Ptak had the good luck to pull this stunt on a woman whose idea of running a meeting is to stick to an agenda (how conservative even antique). Someone more quick witted might have asked him to sing the National Anthem first then they could play ball.

Mr. Erwin, when you attack the messenger and not the message, you are playing that disinformation game by deflecting away from the facts.

You need to improve your skills. In the meantime, are you upset that Ptak is emulating what the POTUS did? If so, why? And all my information was obtained from that Daily Herald article. Feel free to correct me if the Daily Herald was wrong.

No, Louis, I'm not upset that Ptuey filed and succeeded with his petition challenge. I just don't particularly like the things he, or you for that matter, stand for. And as I read over all of your milktoastish jibes and self-important pontifications on this and TA's blog, I see your repeated attacks on various messengers, however pedestrian and specious they may be. Frankly, our readers over here deserve a counter-point to your gobbledegook.

I actually agree that a candidate should, at a minimum, be able to properly complete and obtain the requisite number of petition signatures to even qualify to run for office and have personally participated in a number of challenges. (I just threw up a little at the mere mention of agreeing with...gack... you.) My point to the readers is that we see you here voicing support for one of your tea party fanatics and our former GOP County Board member who engaged in his own little free-lance land-grab. If measured by the company you keep, you're a rat, Louis.

As to blaming the Daily Herald for your factual failings, try doing a little checking before spouting off, Counselor.

But thanks for losing the cutesy pictures.

And, I'll join with the poster who called you on your delayed responses. It's bad form. If you can't say something in a day or two at the most, just bite your little forked tongue, okay?

Oh, so I see Mr. Erwin. You are just mad that I was right? Or you are mad that you agree with me? Or you are just mad?

Wow! I have a following! Who knew?

The Petition challenge was successful? Did that mean the Daily Herald reports or facts were correct? So Mr. Erwin, when you engage in petition challenges, it is because you are a righteous fellow seeking truth, justice and the American way. When others do it, it is because they are scum of the earth, or even worse if they happen to be Tea Party members!

Do I have that straight?

So my original comments that the ridicule of this particular petition challenge by this blog was misguided were shall we say . . . correct? :-)

If you agree with the same premise I started with, that a candidate should strive to meet the basic requirements of the law, and if agreeing with that premise causes you major heartburn then all I can advise you to do keep eating "Tums" or crow.

But calling people a rat, Ptuey, and other names is not exactly what I would call "good form."

And as to "good form" my apologies for not immediately responding to your nonsense. I enjoy posting online but I am not permanently glued to my computer so there may be delayed response times.

Remember what George Washington said: "Let your countenance be pleasant, but in serious matters somewhat grave."